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Hi Coach Jen I agree with your article I read "Increase Your Chances of Losing Weight", it's amazing what posting on the message boards and reading them has done to increase my interest in the groups we have here. I'm kinda pumped up with enthusiasm. I've been working on the equipment at the Y and for the first time, I just know it will work and I'm taking it slow and easy so I don't get burned out. I work out for 30 minutes and treadmill for 30 minutes, do you recommend swimming too ? Having a great day so far , rw

Hi JGUICE I really intend to stay fit physically, mentally and spiritually, I can't do it myself, I need help and guidance. Old habits are hard to give up, it's easier if you replace them with good habits. It's great to be here , thanks for the welcome JG

Thanks for the enlightenment on MIL Tricia. I thought it was a disease, I'm glad it's not.My mother is 89 and lives alone just 5 miles from us.I too have difficulty with the thought of her moving in with us and am grateful that she's mentally able to live alone, and we do speak to her every day.

I'm learning a lot about myself from the message boards and from SP. I try to follow the plan, taking suggestions that will keep me healthy. My rapid weight loss has leveled off now and I see a slower loss, right now I'm at 179 (start weight 186.5) I didn't go to the gym yesterday either, I was cutting grass too and needed a day for personal things. I want to try different times working out , the gym opens at 5:30 AM - 8 PM , plenty of time to go when I want to. It's absolutely first class, the new Ymca, classes, workout and personal training. SOOOO!!! I have NO excuse to get fat and lazy resting on my laurels..........I'm motivated . I love what you say about being positive. Positive attitudes are for positive people and they bring inner peace and healing. In the Native American ways , we have smudging ceremonies and drummings to cleanse away the negative auras

Hi, RW-I'm here! I miss being able to posts, but when I have a few minutes, I enjoy chatting with you. I'm so glad you have been so persistent. You sound like you're doing well with your Spark Plan. This site and the really nice people are so helpful. When it's a rough day and like today, I'm not able to get on until bedtime, it's really good to have a kind post from you. When I first did a profile at the end of June, my next door neighbor took a picture of me on her deck and then put it on the site. I'm not too sophisticated with computer technology, so my two children (Emily, 18 and Ted, 14) took a picture of me (Smile, Mommy!)and put it on my profile for me. I have 3 children 22,18,14 and the bottom 2 are always into something. They keep something going all of the time. MIL is my abbreviation for Mother-in-Law. My sweet Mother-in-Law moved in with us a little over a year ago. She's 81 with moderate Alzheimers. I do very well with all that's necessary for her care, but it's sometimes hard for me to help my husband. He has to see his mother change and it's not easy. I'm a big believer in positive attitude, so I try hard to find something good to say about a funny or light hearted event. I've not done the best with tracking food in the last couple of days, but I may be able to go back and do it later. Instead of treadmill, I cut grass today for a couple of hours. I love the roar of the lawnmower-you can't hear anyone talking! haha Well, it's bedtime, so I better close. Take care and keep up the good work. Tricia

Hi Tricia I miss you when I don't see any posts, I'm glad that you explained it. I'm not sure what's MIL It doesn't sound very nice. I'll be here everyday I hope and inspire you anytime I can. Thanks for being there for me when I needed it, for being truthful and pushy you're an angel. Hugs, RW

Hi, RW, you HAVE done very well. You are an inspiration to me. I've had a couple of hectic days with my MIL, but nothing earth shattering. I feel that I need to be more resourceful to keep my plan going, but I can't do it immediately. It'll take a little time and I need to be patient. I really am proud of you. I wish you a great week. If I'm busy and don't post, don't worry, I'm still around, just not like I was up until now. Talk with you soon, Tricia

I've had 10 fantastic days, between the SparkPeople program and friends and coaches here at the YMCA, I'm doing very well. The Olympic size swimming pool has to be final inspected which should be a couple days, I want to start that too , they have a Program Schedule for members , water sports and aerobics. More later, but I love it be cool, rw

Another lovely sunny day in Florida I always go to the beach on Sunday morning, it's spiritually invigorating and awesome. I find strength and health to be in the sunlight of the spirit. Weight wise I'm holding at 180 today, just had breakfast and I want to keep up with this journal by posting everyday. I visited the new YMCA yesterday and was very impressed with it , I just know I'll spend time there from now on and that will help me lose weight and tune me up good. Have a great day RW

That Y sounds fantastic RW! You'll probably meet some exercise buddies when you go to the orientation. It nice if you have someone that you can meet there and maybe go out for a snack after a workout. I stayed at Stage 1 for 3 weeks, I believe. I read everything and learned the tracking program well. I think your commitment is great! You give others inspriration. The growth where you are sounds a lot like the Outer Banks of NC. They built a YMCA up in Kill Devil Hills a couple of years ago, but it's too far to drive, especially during tourist season. I have a little exercise room in our house and two children who exercise, so it works for me. We keep each other "pumped up" with encouragement. Be sure to let us know how your Y tour goes. Take care, Tricia

Our brand new YMCA opens today and it's a work of art, top notch equipment, showers,locker room , swimming pool, basketball court, I want to stop by and walk through.Monday 4PM they are doing a group orientation to show us how to use all the new equipment and I signed up for it.

Where I live here in Florida on the southwest coast , we have been growing in leaps and bounds over the past 30 yrs,it's unreal, and it's called progress. The local YMCA for many years has just been a store front bldg with some treadmills and nautilus machines so this new multi-million YMCA will sure fill a need,I'm looking forward to spending more time there and physically become strong again or at least tuned up ....lol, It's been a long time since I ever tried to strenthen up,I just took it for granted that I was in good shape, Well I was wrong.

One of my goals is to wear 32" waist pants , right now I am at 36". I am shooting for 32" I was there once and I think that's my ideal size.

I've been hard on myself this past week about eating and changing bad habits,it's produced good results. I want to stay on the first stage of SP again this week.

PS, RW, You've done terrifically on your weight loss! It's been a high curve involvement week for you and it's been good. I've enjoyed chatting with you throughout the week. I'll let you know how my weigh-in goes on Sunday. Take care, Tricia

Jen Thanks much for your encouragement, your caring and for being responsive. I never imagined becoming so excited about posting and I really don't know what to say. When I speak from the heart,I know someone will hear it, and if I listen I will hear what my God is saying through the them.

Good morning Tricia , I hope that your son is getting well I know how weary that can get you.

I'm still weighting in the morning when I get up but I'll just do it weekly pretty soon I hope. I lost 1/2 lb from yesterday and I know it fluctuates from day to day. I've been busy too and need to get moving right along , just wanted to reply to your post, I hope to talk more later be cool.....rw

Good Morning, RW, Sorry I've not checked in with you in a couple of days. My 14yo son has been sick and my mind and time goes south (maybe down to Fla?!?) I'm glad to see your eating plan is working out well. I know you're making great progress and it won't be long until your goal is reached. I have an "all or nothing" type personality, so when I start being conscious of what I'm eating, I tend to go in the other direction and have a calorie count that is on the low side. Yesterday at dinner time, I only had 435 calories for the day, so I had to eat a fairly large dinner to get it up to my 1200 calorie range. It's sort of crazy, isn't it? Other people say they wish they had the problem of getting the calorie count up, but I understand that sometimes it can be difficult. You are doing such a good job. My MIL got up (only God knows what time) early this morning and set the alarm off at 4 am. That'll wake you up in a jiffy! When I got up to turn it off and I found her, she said, "well I didn't see anyone around." I put her back to bed, but I was wide awake. Coffee Time! I know why I'm a morning person. Well, I hope you have a really good day. Talk with you soon, Take care, Tricia

Jen, I'm weighting everyday for a week or so, to start off the day, and I will expect flucuations. I primarily want to lose a few inches in the belly and I expect that to take a long time even when I am eating good and have a balanced food plan to follow.

By weighting myself every morning, upon waking up, I try to put my mind into eating and staying away from the bad foods, and so far I haven't had a slip. When I am ready for phase 2, I'll experiment with a few other foods and see how it goes, then I plan to only weight once a week or less. At my age I know I'll be food conscious from now on , it don't take long to get lazy........LOL, and rest on my laurels thanks for keeping on touch, RW

Don't worry about the scale- you're going to have those fluctuations. I think it's best to weigh yourself no more than once a week, because your weight will vary within the week for reasons that have nothing to do with how well you're sticking to the program. If you want to weigh in every day, that's fine- just recognize that you'll see some variation.

Thanks for the info about juice , I never thought of that, and I'll get some trail mix now too. Today I kicked it up to 1,467 calories , but that's only an estimate since we had dinner at a restaurant tonight, I had Grilled Salmon and sweet potato fries, beans and a cup of beef and noodle soup ( I got a doggy bag to take half the meal home)Sometimes I find it hard to get a real calorie count so I just use some thing in the add-a-meal chart that's close to it.

I know what you mean about the peanut butter. The only thing I have more trouble resisting is peanut butter and chocolate together, lol. To help get your calories up a bit, maybe try using some good fruit juice instead of 1 or 2 cups of plain water. And substitute some trail mix with a few nuts and mostly dried fruit for some of your fresh fruits? Do you have a TRader Joe's nearby?--they have some great organic trail mixes that are pretty cheap, too.

I can see your point about the calories, I've got to do something different. I'm not a big eater, never have been , just made some poor choices. Nuts and especially peanut butter are a poor choice for me because I like it too much and get carried away by sitting in front of the TV and eating the whole jar of peanut butter spoonful at a time. I love snacking on nuts and usually get the dry roasted peanuts but since I am trying to lose weight I know I should be careful about them , they are a real trigger for me to get started back to old ways again. That's why I was changing my snacks to cherries and grapes and fruit, like melon etc.. but it's hardly got any calories and it does fill me up. I've been drinking 8 or more cups of water every day and coffee. I haven't made a plan yet about what to eat during the day and at 7PM what I do is get the nutrition totals for that day, I won't eat anything after the 7PM deadline, so what I end up with is short of the calories suggested. I'm going to add bread and butter, and whole milk instead of no-fat, that should bring up some calories.

I just wanted to second what Tricia has said. I know it feels great to be losing weight as fast you are, but it can eventually backfire on you. It's very hard to keep the weight off permanently if you go too low on calories to get it off--eventually you're going to have to start eating more just to maintain your health, and the weight will start coming back on. You can avoid this by losing at a slower pace, so that there isn't such a big change when you get to the point where you just want to maintain your weight.

I'd strongly recommend that you aim to keep your calorie intake closer to the upper end of your recommended range, at least for a while, to see what happens. You can gradually add in more exercise to help burn extra calories to keep your weight loss going, and then you'll have a healthy lifestyle that you can maintain permanently, to keep the weight off. Although the SP program doesn't differentiate between men and women, medical experts usually recommend that men not go below 1500 calories/day when trying to lose weight, and that women not go below 1200. It's pretty hard to get every thing you need for good nutrition if you get below these numbers on a regular basis.

Chances are that a good part of the 8 lbs you've already lost is fluid weight, with some muscle and fat--it's almost impossible to lose that much fat that fast. Us "older gentlemen" need to be pretty careful about holding onto the muscle we've got, which means going fairly slowly on the weight loss, and incorporating resistance training into our regular routine. Also, are you getting at least 8-10 cups of water everyday?--that's important, too.

Hope this helps. Keep up the great work, and let me know if I can do anything to help out.

Way to go, RW! You're really working hard. I'm going to fuss at you a little bit. Your calorie intake yesterday was the same as mine. Please (pretty please) try to bump it up a bit today. I'm worried that your body will go into starvation mode and it will start burning muscle. Your body needs that muscle to keep your metabolism up. I know I'm being a mother hen, but I worry about you. Eat something like nuts, chocolate soy milk, natural peanut butter, which all have good protien and a few calories to bump you up into the 1400-1500. Ok, enough preaching-I hope you have a great day. The heat on Hatteras is oppressive. I plan to have all indoor activities. I'll check back with you later. Take care, Tricia

My 5th day today total weight loss 8 lbs now, I'm at 178.5, my goal is 170. I didn't take any measurements except my waistline and I have lost an inch there, the real test is how I feel and how my clothes fit. I feel good and confident about this program. I'm journaling more than I ever have now, tracking the calories and committed to excercising everyday. Thank you coaches and friends for the push and shove which I hope you keep doing, I haven't WooHoo'd yet. but I give myself one star for a fast break stage achievement rw

I'm a little short today on making enough calories Goal is 1330 - 1680 .........I got 1,162,--- still I think I had plenty and don't feel hungry. I have posted to a few places on the message boards, and I have been tracking my food,I also got in some workout time at the Y , I still can't figure how to post it I've been eating a lot of grapes, cherries and drinking water, haven't noticed any adverse reactions yet except I go to the bathroom more often, I guess the body is feeling changes in what I eat. I am a happy camper

Don't feel like you have to know a lot about losing weight to be active on the Message Boards. Most people are just happy to know there are others having similar experiences and offering support. So don't be afraid to jump in!

Good Morning RW, I had to sleep in this morning because I could not get to sleep last night. I tossed and turned for 3 hours and finally got up and took a little liquid benadryl. This is about 3 hours later than normal, so my day will be a bit different. I'm glad you're feeling good about being motivated. I agree with you that posting on the Communtiy Boards helps. Maybe it's because it keeps you accountable. The tracking does take a little time, but once you start, it's addictive. I absolutely think the tracking is what makes for my success. For me, it's not just about the calorie range, but getting the meals equal and keeping it all fairly balanced. The older I get, the more important I think it is to get a little bit of everything-carbs, protien, fat, etc. I have to get my toosh moving with the weight program. I do very well with the cardio part, but for some reason, the weight training part hasn't taken off yet. Well, I better get moving. I have a screen porch to paint and I want to finish before the temps soar. Take care, Have a good day, Tricia

Today is day 4: Keeping this journal helps me, I know somebody is there to listen and guide me along. I want to get more involved in the community here at SparkPeople but I am holding back for some reason, probably because I don't know much about losing weight. This morning I lost another 1/2 lb and that makes 7 total for me. I think this time it's going to be easy to get to my goal, I really want it bad enough and I have you guys to help me I haven't conquered the nutrician goal but I'm working on it. Figuring calories and recording what I eat is the hardest part for me right now. Physically I've made a stab at working out more but I haven't gotten into recording that phase. I am motivated and try to read the articles of motivation phase, lots of good advice in there, my program is simple. RW

Coach Jen, I just went and looked up my recommended nutrition program it is as follows:

Short Term Goals / Programs Consume between 32 and 144 grams of protein per day. 1 time each day Consume between 29 and 64 grams of fat per day. 1 time each day Consume between 146 and 268 grams of carbohydrates per day. 1 time each day Consume between 1300 and 1650 calories per day 1 time each day Consume at least 4 cups of water per day. 1 time each day

I don't want to go into starvation mode so I'll "kick it up a notch" on calories thanks,RW

Do you have a recommended calorie range for your SparkDiet? If you're not really hungry, try eating some things that are just higher in calories. Nuts are a great example- you don't have to eat many of them to get the calories up.

If you're consistently eating less calories than you should, your body can go into starvation mode and you'll stop losing weight if this happens.

Day 3 Feels good to get up, stretch, and feel alive without all the toxins in the body from eating something late at night. Weight stayed steady this morning when I got on the scale at 180 , I kinda figured it would level out. Now my goal is to get down below 170, and lose inches around the waist.

Day two evening; I ate better today ,a little over 1000 calories. Still not feeling all that hungry. I have fresh fruit to eat during the day , seedless red grapes and black cherries, also canalope. Went to the Y and worked with the Nautilus equipment and treadmill Seems like I have more energy the past few days since I stared over on the weight loss plan. The hardest part is tonight, in the evening when TV is on so I will drink water or coffee, no snacks at night for now anyways, perhaps when I get to stage 3 or 4

Trica Thanks for your reply. I know I didn't eat right yesterday, 700 calories is low for me. I need to make adjustments but I really am committed this time and it would be so easy to count calories and then at night blow it because I didn't eat enough during the day.

RunningWater, be sure to eat enough to keep your strength up. You don't want your body to burn muscle. 700 calories sounds very low. I worry that you'll start getting weak and not be able to function. Take care and chat with you soon. Tricia

Good morning ,Happy Sunday, Tra La Lah and all that good jazz I know it sounds "far out!!" This morning I weighed again when I got out of bed and lost another 2 lbs, so I know it's for real,I lost 6.5 lbs in two days. I measured around the belly and have dropped 1" Tim , where do I sign up for the commercials ??? LOL

I didn't eat much yesterday, we went to my daughters for her birthday and I opted for a small salad instead of pizza and cake, saved the day for me because I couldn't wait to check the scale again.

I also went to the Y yesterday and walked the treadmill for 30 minutes and did a light workout on the equipment. I only ate about 700 calories total yesterday and drank 4 glasses of water. I wasn't hungry at all. Last night I wanted some fruit to nibble on but I had enough will power and determination to not feed on those thoughts , instead I sat on the floor and concentrated on lotus postion and yoga while I watched the boob tube. It's amazing how the mind tricks me into the illusion that I need food, I am dtermined to retrain my thoughts and only eat when I'm fully aware of what I'm doing and when I choose to eat, not habitually. Today I will have a good day

Wow, RunningWater, can I have those 4 lbs!?! I also was having trouble snacking at night. I "rewarded" myself for making it through the day and after many many rewarding evenings, my slacks were getting very tight. I start adding small snacks into my day at 9:30 am and 3:30 pm. I keep the snacks to 100 calories and it's either a piece of fruit, a yogart or a small bad of wheat thins. I now know I'm going to get a treat and then at night I don't feel that the snack is necessary. After I lost a few lbs, I didn't want to mess up my progress, so I just tried to forget about eating after dinner. Please keep posting. I enjoy reading other people's progress. Tricia

Hahaha, wow, that might be quickest 4lb loss ever, it almost sounds like one of those cheesy infomercials for a "miralce weight loss pill". I can see it now, "I lost 4.5 pounds in only one day - Thanks SparkPeople!"

Just kidding of course, it is really great to see you checking in for your tune up as you put it (i love that). Let us know if there is anything we can do to help! Enjoy the weekend! t

Just checking in yesterday I weighed myself at 186.5 and this morning it was 182..? about the same time, and on the same scale. I didn't eat much yesterday and nothing after supper. I hope to continue losing like that but not that fast

I've been trying to lose a few inches of belly fat and get my weight to less than 170.I just weighed in at 186.5 I want to work out more often at the YMCA and find it hard to get motivated. I joined SparkPeople because I enjoy reading about ways to lose and I'm ready to give it a shot once more with the help of the groups here. I feel a lot better in the morning when I don't eat snacks at night, I know they aren't good for me, so I have to substitute something for that. I'm 66 years old and healthy , but I need a tune up and a plan to stay fit Your comments are always welcome to me and I look forward to being an active member of this fine group

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